The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-04-01
FOR TIE FARMER.
The Making and the Management of .
Good Garden Bnckwheat as
. Food.
Food Eaten BY Animals should be Rieh
la Muscle Forming 0aall-
ties.
A GOOD GARDEN.

4
Suburban home may get what plants he
needs from some neighboring gardener
or from the floral depots in the city.
II, however, the garden Is to contain a
full supply of vegetables and flowers II
Is altogether better to make a small
hotbed at home, from which the seed
lings may be pricked out later into a
cold frame, thence 10 be transferred TO
the open air at the proper season. In
the case of the farmer the home hotbed
Is Indispensable. The plants are trans
ferred fresh TO the open air, and very
little II any check 10 growth is expert
enced.
The difficulty with most people is
that they suppose the making and
management of hotbed to be beyond
their knowledge. Nothing is more
simple. The bed once made and plant
ed. any of the female portion of the
household can look after it during the
day, and will cheerfully do SO for the
sake Of the good and healthful living
that comes from the garden through
this means.
Save the horse manure, long and
short together, but not two strawy,
placing it where it will not freeze.
The time to make the farm hotbed is
about that season when the first birds
of passage make their appearance, or
just previous to this time. Place the
manure in compact pile and let it
heat UP. If the heat be strong, or
some still dry turn it; mixing the ma
nure well together, long and short. II
the heat be not very strong. place it
immediately in the pit upon which the
hOtbed is to be formed. This pit need
not be more than foot deep for bed
at this season of the year, and fourteen
inches in depth is sufficient manure.
The bed need not be more than three
sashes in width, and the sashes should
be six feet long and wide enough to
accommodate four lines of glass, and
without cross-bars to the sash, the
glass simply being Tapped one light
under another to shed water. In lay
ing in the manure do so evenly, shak-
ing up well to get out hard Jumps, and
mix long and short equally together.
Pat down the manure from time to
time with the back of the fork to find
the soft places, and when nearly finish
ed the whole may he lightly and re-
gularly tramped. Then finish with the
fine manure, put on the frame and
then the glass.
The frame is made by saving inch
boards of a proper size to fit the glass,
putting in eorner-pieces Of twO-by-
four scantling to nail to. The frame
may be sixteen inches high at the back
by fourteen inches in front. Let in
Stats upon which to slide the sash, and
the whole is complete. Cover the glass
with mats or hay, and let it be until
next day.
Prepare fine, compost earth sufficient
to cover the space inside the bed six
inches thick. Smooth all down nicely,
raking out all the trash and Jumps,
When the heat inside is ut co. or 702,
or when the earth feels just warm to
the hand, sow the seeds of whatever
plants you want in hills, three inches
apart, and in proportion as you may
require, say, of cabbage, caulifower,
lettuce, tomato, pepper, eggplant,
celery, okra, etc, The space left may
be sown with radish and lettuce to
grow where they stand until fit to eat.
Do not make bed of less than two
sash; three is better, since the temper
ature Is more easily controlled. Wa
ter when dry and from a fine watering
pot.
Give air in all sunny weather and
during every day when it Is not too
cold or windy, This is done by tilt.
ing the sash against the direction of the
wind, or so the air cannot blow direct.
~ upon the plants. In fact, it is bet.
ter to have the whole so fenced in or in
such situation that direct wind can.
not reach the plants. Always close the
sash early enough at night so the sun
can assist in warming up the bed fol
the night, and before dark, and espec,
tally In cold nights cover all with
slough hay or mats,
When the plants are fairly in the
rough leaf they may be pricked out
into a cold frame, three inches apart
each way. A cold frame is made pre-
cisely as is hotbed, only no heating
manure is used.
In planting do not forget the flowers
Sow plenty of them in the hothed and
transplant into the cold frame. Thus
you may have vegetables and also
bloom two or three weeks before your
more INDECENT neighbors. You may
even pay the whole expense of raising
the plants by selling them Chicago
Tribune.